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R/C Sailboat Construction Manual

If you are interested in building your own wooden radio control sailboat, then you might consider trying a Star 45. A couple years ago I wrote a construction manual for how to build one. The manual is 100 pages and walks you through the entire project.

The project uses the available-for-purchase laser cut frames for the Star 45. From there you create the boat you want. It's great fun and you'll end up with a fantastic boat!

The manual could probably be adopted to construct other classes of R/C sailboats too, but that would depend on the class and on your skills. Keep in mind that this manual is for building a wooden boat with a fiberglass covering. It's not for building a fiberglass mold.

I made a one-off variant of the Star 45 that I call the Salish 475. You can read about it on the blog. It looks more like an ocean going racing yacht than the classic Star 45.

Email me for information. The PDF version is $20 and will be emailed to you. For a printed version ($35) go to Lulu Press.

Good luck!

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Well I just hit the R/C Sailboat jackpot! Rod Carr, of Carr Sails in Redmond, WA, and the second ever member of the AMYA, just gifted me a Marblehead "Riptide" hull and many of the parts and templates to finish it! Thank you Rod!

I'm not sure when I'll be able to work on this, but hopefully it will turn into a fantastic vintage Marblehead. The gentleman who started it did a fantastic job. He was a true artist and I will do my best to get as close as I can to his workmanship but it will be a challenge.

Here are some pictures...

He even cast his own bulb and the mold came with the hull! I could probably start making my own fleet of Riptides as he also gave me many of the templates and such. I will only need to pin and epoxy the bulb to the fin and fair it smooth. It will be easy to do.

The frames look and feel like he hand cut them on a scroll saw, but they are very close to perfect. He used thicker plywood than I may have but they are very sturdy. The bow is very squ…

1. A Tippecanoe T37. These are kits available from Tippecanoe Boats in Washington State.

2. A classic, wooden, Star 45. It has been officially measured and is class legal. The Star 45 is a pretty, classy, builders boat that has withstood the test of time.

3. A Salish 475. It's my own variation on the Star 45. It was built from the same laser cut frames as the Star with a number of modifications aft of frame 6. It is an update of the classic look and was an attempt to mimic a modern ocean racing yacht.

I've also built four Pygmy kayaks and many other projects. It's all fun... right?!

One of my current projects is to 3D model Gus Lassel's 1949 "Sun Wind" Vintage Marblehead (VM) sailboat. Apparently it was originally called the "Sun Daze", as in fun sailing on Sundays, according to Adrian Olson whose father had a connection to the original designer. (By the way, check out Adrian's other model yachts too. He does beautiful work!)

Boats back then were free-sailing or vane-sailing. I think this was a free-sailing boat but am not sure. My version will be modified for RC. All I have to go by is an old set of lines, but hopefully I can get a decent model out of it. Eventually I would like to make laser-cut frames from my 3D model and actually recreate the boat in RC.

Adrian Olson offers a modern fiberglass kit for the Sun Wind. The pictures look beautiful! My intention is to create frames so that a builder can make their own wood & fiberglass version. I really doubt that many people will want to go through the effort it can take to make a …

UPDATE: As of 12/8/2017, I was sent a much better TIFF file of the original plans by Ted Houk. See my updated post.

When Rod Carr gifted to me an unfinished wooden Riptide hull, it came with a CD of files from the gentleman (a man named Roger, I believe) who made it. I finally got a chance to look at the files and what a great discovery!

Roger created not only several very helpful PDF files, but .dxf files too. With some work I could make files for laser cut frames, fin and rudder!

NOTE: I am not the creator of these files and cannot vouch for the accuracy of them. The creator of the electronic files is unknown but the original plans for the Riptide go back to 1949 and are most likely in the public domain. One version of the Riptide lines is being freely distributed. These files are the only ones I've seen other than the original 1949 hand-drawn lines. I put them here under an assumed Creative Commons license for NON-commercial work. You are free to make your own Riptide but only…